David Davis returned from Brussels empty-handed on Monday after Michel Barnier rejected major parts of Britain’s ‘backstop’ customs plan to avoid a hard border in Ireland.
Mr Davis told the European Union’s chief Brexit negotiator that work needed to speed up on preparing the future UK-EU trading relations in the hour long meeting in Brussels, which ended in frustration over the vexed issue of the Irish border.
“It is like we are coming from two different places at the moment,” one well-placed EU source told The Telegraph.
After the meeting, the European Commission published its initial analysis of the British customs plan. It damningly asked if the idea was really a backstop at all and repeated...